The Trash Who Lost His Mark

"You worthless piece of trash!"

Listening to the insults from the young man standing before him, Zeng Mu did not look up. He picked himself up and turned toward a deserted corner of the square. That kick had hurt badly, but he held back the blood surging into his mouth.

"What a useless piece of trash! Does someone who's lost his elemental mark even deserve to be called an Elementalist?"

"If his adoptive grandfather Yuan Su weren't our principal's second uncle, someone whose elemental mark had mutated into a dormant state would have been kicked out of the Element Academy ages ago."

"Hmph, letting trash like him stay in our Element Academy is an insult to the rest of us. We ought to report this to our instructor and submit a joint petition to have him expelled. If enough of us sign, even the principal won't be able to protect him anymore."

"Exactly. Come on, let's apply right now. The Element Academy is a place for the strong. There's no room here for worthless trash."

The group grew more worked up as they talked, until they all streamed out of the square toward the classroom building below the steps, abandoning even their elemental training class.

Their instructor, Yue Yuxin, naturally witnessed the whole scene. Watching the dozen or so students leave, she sighed and murmured, "Honestly, they're all still children. Why have they already lost their tolerance and kindness?"

She walked over to Zeng Mu, who sat on a stone bench gazing at the scenery of the hill behind the academy.

Before she even came close, Zeng Mu could smell the maternal fragrance she carried, a sweet, rich floral scent like rose petals mingled with gardenia petals. She was only twenty-four, yet her bearing and speech held the gentleness of a mature young married woman.

She crouched down, her full thighs pressed against her smooth calves, forming an elegant curve. The rounded contours beneath her black, hip-hugging skirt were enough to set a person's heart burning.

"Little Mu, don't sit here all alone. Go practice a little. I believe you can do it. Promise me you'll have faith in yourself, all right?" Her voice was soft and delicate, with a sweetness that melted into the heart and made him feel almost ready to burst.

"Faith?" Zeng Mu gave a cold laugh, the cruelest rejection of himself.

He shook his head and looked at Yue Yuxin. "Instructor Yue, don't waste your effort. I know I can't do it. Someone who's lost his elemental mark really is no different from the trash they call him."

"But you haven't completely lost your elemental mark. It's just dormant and won't manifest," she said, trying to soothe him.

"Stop joking! What's the difference between an elemental mark that won't manifest and one that's gone?!" He suddenly stood up and roared.

After several heavy breaths, he calmed down again, apologized to her, and turned to run down the steps. He intended to find somewhere no one would come near him and stay there all day.

"Oh, this child..." Watching his retreating back, Yue Yuxin did not know what to do. She wondered why this one-in-ten-thousand misfortune had befallen such a good-hearted boy. In the end, she could only sigh at the unfairness of fate.

Elementalists drew upon the seven elements that existed in nature and formed the world: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning.

The emergence of Elementalists dated back twenty years.

One distant afternoon in 1993, a blue comet suddenly descended upon Earth without warning, stunning everyone when it appeared.

The comet, less than a meter in diameter, landed on Earth. From that day onward, a mysterious power changed everything on the planet. A science born of nature yet transcending it emerged, and only a tiny fraction of humanity could wield this supernatural power. These people were known as Elementalists.

To be an Elementalist was to have everything. They did not need to spend years buried in books or labor at a job. They only needed to study at the Element Academy and devote themselves to mastering elemental power. Once they fully controlled that power and graduated, they could be assigned to positions across every level of society, including bodyguards for politicians, military instructors, security guards in the business world, hackers, and hired muscle...

In short, an Elementalist's prospects were limitless. Possessing an elemental mark meant possessing everything.

The only drawback it brought was a loss of moral character. An elemental mark was innate, manifesting much like a person's natural talent. However, it did not appear at birth, but at around sixteen years of age. Once it appeared, it meant that its bearer had become an Elementalist capable of controlling elemental power.

The temperaments and even personalities of these young people changed dramatically overnight after they gained their elemental marks. Even the transformation of a beggar who became a multimillionaire overnight could not compare. Their lives were completely overturned, and as a result, many became short-tempered, conceited, and arrogant. Only after entering the Element Academy, where young Elementalists pursued further training, did they settle down a little.

Amid such life-altering changes, Zeng Mu had been one of the relatively normal ones. His temperament had not changed when his elemental mark appeared. Of course, he had to admit that he had been happy and excited that day. Possessing such power could change everything, including his family's poverty and his own sense of inferiority.

Now, everything had shattered.

Zeng Mu lay on the rooftop lawn of the classroom building, watching the clouds tinted with sunset colors. He sighed. "Life is like a dream, impossible to grasp. Life is like a play, impossible to predict. Is this really my fate?"

There had been previous cases of elemental marks becoming dormant. Zeng Mu had once witnessed it happen to another Elementalist. During training class, the boy had still been able to use his fire element normally, but as soon as class ended, the red mark on his forehead suddenly faded, leaving only a faint outline. That was precisely what a dormant mark looked like.

He touched his forehead. A moment later, a pattern traced in faint lines appeared there, exactly like the one he had seen back then. It was a dormant elemental mark, what his classmates called a useless mark.

A mark that could no longer channel elemental power was undoubtedly worthless, and that was what he had become. Ironically, his elemental mark had only gone dormant two days earlier, the day before yesterday. Yet those two days had felt as long as two years. In that brief time, he had endured far too many scornful looks and insults.

Recalling his former glory and the cruel coldness of the past two days, he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Soon, however, a voice woke him.

"Little Zeng, Little Zeng."

He opened his eyes to find an old man with graying hair and a white beard standing before him. It was none other than his adoptive grandfather, Yuan Su. Yuan Su and Zeng Mu's grandfather had been comrades who faced life and death together during the Korean War. Sadly, his grandfather had died in that foreign land protecting Yuan Su.

"Oh, Grandpa Yuan Su, what brings you here?"

"Ha, I came to see how you've been doing lately. Anyway, why did you fall asleep here? Get up first. Don't catch a cold. Your constitution is no different from an ordinary person's now, so you need to take extra care."

Those words dimmed Zeng Mu's eyes. As he rose, he murmured to himself, "Yes, I'm no different from an ordinary person now. No, to be precise, I really am trash."

"Don't say that. Come on, I'll take you somewhere."

"Where? I don't want to go anywhere right now. I just want to stay here quietly by myself without anyone bothering me."

"Somewhere that can restore your elemental mark," he said.

Yuan Su's words instantly lit up Zeng Mu's eyes. His voice trembled with excitement. "Really?"

"Really, really. Come with me." He reached out and pulled him to his feet.

Zeng Mu followed Yuan Su off the rooftop and down the stairs.

At five o'clock, a loud, clear bell rang out across the entire Element Academy, announcing the end of classes. Students poured out of their classrooms and crowded into the corridors, heading downstairs.

"Ugh, what rotten luck. Why did we have to run into this piece of trash here?"

"Hmph, even one extra glance at him annoys me. The kid has no shame at all. He actually has the nerve to stay here."

"Well, isn't this something? Look who it is. Isn't he the outstanding student who placed third in last month's annual grade examination? How did he end up like this? What a joke."

Voices reached them amid the footsteps. With Yuan Su present, none of the students dared speak too loudly, but there were simply too many of them. Even with their voices lowered, the unceasing contempt was impossible to ignore. Some of the bolder students even stared straight at him with cold eyes. Had Yuan Su not intimidated them with a sweeping glare, they would have kept staring at the boy they called trash.

The voices buzzed around him like a swarm of bees, agitating Zeng Mu until his expression grew increasingly dark and grim.

Though Yuan Su was displeased, it would not have been appropriate for him to reprimand them there. After all, this was the academy, and he was not an instructor, merely a student's guardian at most.

He said softly to Zeng Mu, "Don't pay attention to them. Soon, they won't have another chance to say things like that."

Those words reassured Zeng Mu and truly helped. His expression was no longer quite so dark and grim.

But when they reached the ground floor, he saw a pair of eyes.

Those eyes filled him with shame. He wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

They were her eyes.

Zhou Shiyu looked at Zeng Mu, who did not dare approach her, and sighed. "How did things suddenly turn out like this?"

Her close friends immediately began trying to persuade her:

"Shiyu, you're so foolish. He's become trash, so why are you still thinking about him? Don't tell me you want to marry an ordinary person who has nothing. Please, without his elemental mark, he's nobody. How would he support you? With sweet talk?"

"Exactly. He came from an ordinary background and was lucky enough to rise above his class when his elemental mark appeared. But now he's back where he started, somewhere so low and obscure we couldn't reach it even if we stretched out a foot. Do you understand? The difference between you now is the distance between the tip of a pyramid and its base."

"Come on, we still have to attend the academy's annual evening ball. You have no idea how many handsome men and beautiful women from politics, the military, and business will be there tonight. We need to seize this chance to make more connections. It's planning ahead for our futures."

"Anyway, just stop thinking about that trash. A man with no future is like a lump of mud with no nutrients. How could he help a seed like you sprout when you're destined to grow into a towering tree?"